Category: articles
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Rubber tree
Honestly, I chose to write about the rubber tree (a.k.a Ficus elastica) for our first ‘my favourite plant’ segment, because I have a huge one in my flat, looming dramatically over my bed.
But I actually followed through on that thought because of Living Root Bridges. Which just look friggin’ cool.… Read more
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mRNA- going the (long) distance
Inside billions of cells all around us, DNA quietly makes messenger RNA (mRNA), which in turn acts as the template for protein synthesis.
In this equation, mRNA is the boring middle man. Unlike DNA, its lifetime is short, and it doesn’t get passed to the next generation. It also doesn’t get the protein life- catalyzing metabolic reactions, capturing the light from the sun, or transporting products across cell membranes.
Sometimes in our lives, we need a thrilling tale of an ordinary guy making a break for freedom….… Read more
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Simple things #2
In which we use Randall Munroe’s ‘simple writer‘ to explain plant-and-pipette topics. Can you guess what they are?
Monroe’s ‘simple writer’ limits language use to only the 10 hundred most common words in the English language. So the word ‘chloroplast’ is out. But so is ‘duck’, ‘cuddle’, and ‘explosion’.
We’ve tried to define a plant and pipette related word using only these common words. Can you tell what we’re talking about? The solution is shown at the bottom.… Read more
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China grows plants on the moon!
Back on January 3rd 2019, China managed to land on the ‘dark side’ of the moon.
Even as someone who is not super into space, I can admit that this event was objectively cool. But generally, the largest significance it had on life is that I couldn’t get Pink Floyd out of my head for the last ten days.
Until now!
Because news just broke that China’s Chang’e-4 mission involves the moon-based development of 6 of our common earth organisms. And four of them were plants!… Read more
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Simple things #1
In which we use Randall Munroe’s ‘simple writer‘ to explain plant-and-pipette topics. Can you guess what they are?… Read more
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In the Beginning there was…
What you think happened in the beginning might depend a bit on your perspective.
In the beginning, many would say, there was the Big Bang.
But, in case the title of our new blog hasn’t given it away, we’re not physicists, and we’re much more interested in the beginning of the planet of the plants.
So let’s jump forward about 12 billion years shall we?
… Read more